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Donagh MacDonagh
by George J. Dance | birth_place = Dublin, Ireland | death_date = January | death_place = Dublin, Ireland | nationality = Irish | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = writer, judge }} Donagh MacDonagh (22 November 1912 - 1 January 1968) was an Irish poet, playwright, judge, presenter, and broadcaster. Life Youth and education MacDonagh was born in Dublin, the first child of Muriel (Gifford) and poet and teacher Thomas MacDonagh. His proud father could often be seen, kilted and smiling, wheeling baby Don around Dublin in his pram; behavior unheard of, for a father, in those days.Anthony Cronin, Poetry: Dublin made me and no little town - Donagh MacDonagh, Independent, April 26, 2017. Thomas wrote letters to the boy, on his birth and his one-month anniversary; one reads: "I must myself formally congratulate you on having such a mother. You are the most fortunate child in the world, as I am the most fortunate man. Please god we three are going to have a long and happy and loving life together." Before the child was old enough to read those words, both parents were dead.Donagh MacDonagh, Ricorso. Web, Mar. 30, 2017. In 1916 Thomas MacDonagh signed the proclamation of the Irish Republic, and took part in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin; he was executed by the British after its failure, on May 3 of that year. On 9 July 1917, Muriel MacDonagh drowned while swimming in the Irish Sea. Donagh MacDonagh almost died himself in 1917, after being inoculated with a live tuberculosis virus; he survived, but with his growth stunted and a permanent curvature of his spine. The MacDonaghs being Roman Catholic and the Giffords Church of Ireland, the families then began a drawn-out battle for custody of Don and his sister Barbara (born 1915); eventually the MacDonaghs prevailed. In the meantime the children lived with strangers until their late teens, when they were taken in by Jack MacDonagh and by Eleanor Bingham, co. Clare. At age 12 MacDonagh attended Belevedere College, and then went to University College Dublin (UCD), where his contemporaries included Niall Sheridan and Denis Devlin; simultaneously with attending UCD he studied law at King's College. In 1934 MacDonagh and Sheridan released a chapbook of Twenty Poems. Career After graduating, MacDonagh was called to the bar in 1935. He practiced on the Western Circuit until 1941, when he was appointed a district judge in co. Mayo. Anthony Cronin claims that he was "made a District Justice, probably more because he was the orphaned son of the signatory than because of any special knowledge of the law." During this period MacDonough edited the book page of the Irish Times, and published poetry in periodicals in Ireland and the United States. His first full collection of poetry was published in 1941.Donagh MacDonagh, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Web, Mar. 20, 2017. He also began hosting a popular show on Radio Eireann called Ireland is Singing, which ran through to the 1950's.Songs Collected by Donagh MacDonagh, Tripod.com. Web, Mar. 20, 2017. In 1946 he finished his first play, Happy as Larry. The Abbey Theatre showed no interest in it.VIII. Donagh MacDonagh, Thomas MacDonagh Family Papers, 82, National Library of Ireland. Web, Mar. 20, 2017. However, it was staged at the Abbey in 1947 by Austin Clarke's Lyric Theatre Company, and was a big hit. It then was staged, as successfully, in London by the Mercury Theatre, produced by E. Maurice Brown.Ian R. Walsh, "Theatricality in Verse: Donagh Macdonagh's Happy as Larry and the Lyric Theatre," DQR Studies in Literature 56 (2015). Questia, Mar. 20, 2017. It became the most successful play in London of the post-war years. It was produced as a musical on Broadway by Burgess Meredity in 1950, albeit unsussessfully. MacDonagh went on to write 3 more plays, all staged. He co-edited the Oxford Book of Irish Verse with Lennox Robinson in 1958. He was married twice: to Maura Smyth, who died of an epileptic attak; then to Nuala Smyth, her sister, who was the mother of his 4 children. He died on 1 January 1968 in Dublin, where he was by then serving as a judge. Publications Poetry *''Twenty Poems'' (with Niall Sheridan). Dublin: privately published, 1934. *''Veterans, and other poems''. Dublin: Cuala Press, 1941. *''The Hungry Grass''. London: Faber & Faber, 1947. *''The Ballad of Jane Shore'' (pamphlet). Dublin: Dolmen (Dolmen Chapbook, No. 1), 1954. *''A Warning to Conquerors'' (with preface by Niall Sheridan). Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1968. Plays *''Happy as Larry: A play in four scenes. Dublin & London: Maurice Fridberg 1946; London: Fridberg / Dublin: Dolmen, 1967 **also published in ''Four Modern Verse Plays (edited by E. Martin Browne). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1957. *"Step-in-the-Hollow", in Three Irish Plays (edited by E. Martin Browne). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1959; Baltimore: Penguin, 1960. *"Lady Spider" (edited & annotated by Gordon M. Wickstrom), in Journal of Irish Literature, 9 (Sept. 1980), 3-82. Non-fiction *"The Reputation of James Joyce: From notoriety to fame’, in University Review, 3:2 (Summer 1963), 12-20. *"My Grandfather was Irish", in Penguin New Writing (edited by John Lehmann, No. 19 (Oct.-Dec. 1944), 55-63. *"The Lass of Aughrim; or, The betrayal of James Joyce’, in The Celtic Master: Contributions to the first James Joyce symposium Held in Dublin, 1967 (edited by Maurice Harmon). Dublin: Dolmen 1969, 17-25. *"God’s Gentry", in The Word. St Patrick’s, Donamon, Ireland: Divine Word Missionaries, 1964. Edited *''Information, Please!'' Dublin: Mellifont Press 1944; Dublin: Pillar Publishing Co. 1945. *''Letters of People in Love''. London & Dublin: Mellifont Press 1944. *''Poems from Ireland''. Dublin: Irish Times, 1944. *''Oxford Book of Irish Verse: 17th century-20th century'' (edited with Lennox Robinson). Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1958, 1979. *''Ballads of the Invincibles''. Dublin: Abbey Theatre, 1967. *''Ulysses Map of Dublin''. Dublin & London: Signa, 1968. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Ricorso.net.Donagh MacDonagh, Ricorso.net. Web, Nov. 22, 2014. Plays * 1946 - Happy As Larry. Maurice Fridberg, London 1946. Translated into a number of languages * 1951 - God's Gentry. Belfast Arts Theatre, August 1951. * 1957 - Step in the Hollow. Gaiety Theatre, 11 Mar. 1957. * 1967 - Do.: A Play in Four Scenes -, Maurice Fridberg, London 1967. * 1980 - Lady Spider. (unpublished) See also * List of Irish poets References *Robert Hogan, After the Irish Renaissance. 1986 *Desmond Ernest Stewart Maxwell, Modern Irish Drama, 1891-1980. Cambridge, 1985. Notes External links ;Poems *"Dublin made me and no little town" *Donagh MacDonagh (7 poems) ;About *Donagh MacDonagh in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Donagh MacDonagh at Ricorso.net * Website of Donagh MacDonagh's Son, including links to poems and plays. ;Etc. *Songs collected by Donagh MacDonagh Category:1912 births Category:1968 deaths Category:Burials at Deans Grange Cemetery Category:Irish poets Category:People from County Dublin Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets